A High-Stakes Partnership – Stake & Drake’s Collaboration

Drake and Stake are two parties, global brands, that probably need no introduction. While we are sure everyone reading this knows all about Stake, a crypto-gambling site that ranks as the world’s best-known one, we are not so certain that the same holds for Drake. At least, we are not 100% sure that all of our readers understand the magnitude of his popularity and impact in pop music today and in the past decade and a half. So, we will add here that Aubrey Drake Graham, or Drake, is an R&B artist with hip-hop sensibilities who holds the honor of being the US’ highest-certified digital sales artist. He holds various charting records, including the most top ten songs and the most debuts in the Hot 100 standings.

Drake now gets seen as a global music icon who is a culture/fashion trendsetter. His social media following is massive, and so is his brand influence. At the time of writing, his Instagram page – Champagnepapi, has amassed 144 million followers, and his Twitter/X one, Drizzy, has more than 39 million despite being fairly inactive.

Thus, it is no wonder that Stake saw sizeable potential in teaming up with Drake and what their partnership could yield. Although, their paring became public in 2022, with sources reporting that the famed crypto gaming and betting site agreed to pay Drake $100 million per year for his endorsement. Going by the public timeline, these two parties officially joined forces in March 2022, shortly after Drake made headlines for profiting $1.2 million in Bitcoin on Super Bowl LVII. The deal was allegedly for Drake to livestream his roulette casino sessions to his fans, but we assume that it contained much more than that, and here, we go into how it has impacted both sides.

How Stake.com’s Partnership with Drake Affected the Brand

Of course, the main thing that Stake wanted to get out of this agreement was access to Drake’s immense fanbase and to get tied with a global celebrity, lending to a higher level of credibility associated with the site. The move proved super successful, as Stake’s founders, childhood friends Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, have called it excellent for the platform, and the Financial Times has reported that Stake generated almost $2.6 million in 2022 in revenues, up from the $1.2 billion the site notched in 2021.

With Drake putting down substantial gambles on this hub, the likes that the common person cannot afford, Stake gets a sense of legitimacy. Drake gambling here acts as social proof that this is a website that can be trusted, and is reliable for all. Events like Drake’s Live Bet Streams has further solidified this.

Drake’s association with Stake has not only gotten used to making this brand appear reliable, but it has also helped educate people around the planet with crypto, something that has historically been seen as a niche market. It has opened up pop culture to digital coins and has familiarized loads of millennials and Gen Z members who like Drake to understand how this technology works. All that in hopes that they will get properly educated on the benefits of cryptocurrencies and develop a willingness to gamble using them on Stake.

The latter must have occurred, given that Stake’s revenue numbers have grown dramatically since they got hooked up with Drake, with whom they have run various promotions and events which have attracted loads of new users eager to participate in the excitement that Stake.com brings to the table.

The Criticism of Stake & Drake’s Partnership

Despite the many positives for Stake and Drake, their partnership has also come with certain regulatory and ethical concerns. The first is the promotion of gambling to younger audiences. Much has been made of this because young adults and teens primarily comprise Drake’s fanbase. Moreover, Stake.com has opened many people’s eyes to crypto-based betting, which can be used in less-than-regulated markets. Maybe not at Stake, but elsewhere. Nonetheless, the social gambling version of Stake allows Americans to enjoy games of chance via a social gaming model, which is somewhat controversial for many everyday individuals and legal professionals. 

The site has also faced criticisms for allegedly bypassing restrictions, with former users suing Stake on the basis that the platform exploited their addictions, profiting from it.

Regulatory bodies and commentators argue that using high-profile celebrities is wrong to promote online gambling since it glamorizes this pastime and does not present it for what it is: a serious financial activity with inherent monetary risks. Doubts also exist that Drake’s Stake gambling is nothing more than a promotional stunt, not an example of his genuine gaming/betting experiences on this hub. This means that Drake is not gambling his funds but instead using dummy ones, or he gets credited with funds supplied by Stake’s team to use on their sportsbook and casino sections. This has not been proven. Still, it is a long-standing allegation that holds for many famous casino streamers who use internationally regulated casinos, like those operating from Curacao, with many believing that these people play with bonus funds or in demo mode. That they do not actually gamble their held coins or fiat money.

To address some of these worries, particularly those on the irresponsible gambling front, in recent years, Stake.com has taken steps to promote responsible betting, highlighting the importance of gambling within one’s limits through various tools.

Drake’s Biggest Stake Wins & Losses

Per speculation, it get assumed that this renowned Canadian music sensation has gambled over a billion dollars at Stake.com. Some of his most publicized wins include Drake bagging $2.2 million on rising UFC sensation Paddy Pimblett and Women’s Flyweight Molly McCann winning at UFC London, and collecting a cool million dollars for the correct guess that the Denver Nuggets would beat the Heat in the 2023 NBA final, losing only one game to the team from Miami.

That said, Drake has also made a name for himself for missing far more sports predictions than guessing outcomes right. He lost $2 million wagering on Israel Adesanya to beat the current UFC light heavyweight champion – Alex Pereira, at UFC 281 in a middleweight title bout. His one million 2022 FIFA World Cup Final loss also made the news rounds, even though he accurately picked Argentina to win, but they failed to do so in regular time, rending his bet a losing one. These are only a few of Drake’s infamous sports losses, of which he has a long list, which has also helped create the internet phenomenon known as the Drake Curse. That is the superstition that Drake brings bad luck to athletes, as evidenced by the fact that many famous sports competitors have suffered bad results from meeting or having a photo taken with Drake. Those incidents have attained meme status, as has the curse.

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